Regional monitoring or security systems can be used in residential buildings to provide alarm indicating signals either locally or to a displaced central station. Known alarms usually include a control panel with at least one display unit and keypad for use in controlling the system. In known alarm systems there is a delay associated with Exit/Entry and Security Industry Association (SIA) required dialer delays. During this time, alarms are held by the panel. If a burglar locates and destroys the panel before one of the above times expire, then the alarm will not be sent and the system will be defeated.
To solve the above problem, the alarm is generated when the zone is violated. It is sent as a special “delayed reporting” alarm type and includes a fixed delay time for the zone that was violated. Known implementations use a fixed delay, which is usually set to a worst case value.
The alarm is then sent via either the Internet or a wireless communicator to an alarm receiver or an alarm transport service. The alarm is held by either the alarm transport service or the alarm receiver for the duration of the delay specified in the message plus an additional guard time to account for network transport times. Once this time runs out, it is considered a real alarm.
If sent via the alarm transport service, then the alarm is forwarded to the central station. If sent to the receiver, then the receiver releases the alarm to an automation system. If the system is disarmed before the delay has expired, then a cancel message is sent to either the alarm transport service or the receiver, which will cancel the delivery of the delayed alarm.